Apple Computer Feature Story Video Art Works Sandy Hook Connecticut

As the self-confessed nerd of the pair, Bill is always ready to try new features. "DVD Studio Pro is so powerful, there are whole areas I haven't even explored yet," he admits. But he likes its simplicity as much as its power. "DVD Studio Pro is a marvelous program to use because it's so easy. When I first opened the box, I learned it in 45 minutes. The display makes sense, and it's elegant and fast. But when I realized its possibilities, to make chapters and jump between cool menus and video segments, I was dumbfounded."

He especially appreciates the menu system. "The way you can import just a single Photoshop document with all of the layers (up to 99) you need for your menus systems in DVD Studio Pro is just phenomenal."

People are beginning to view our DVD work with the respect they show professional photographers and musicians, who are considered artists.

People are beginning to view our DVD work with the respect they show professional photographers and musicians, who are considered artists.

Rivaling Hollywood
Marleen sums it up this way: "DVD Studio Pro gives us the ability to create a most incredible wedding DVD that rivals anything Hollywood can do." "One year ago," adds Bill, "you could not get the features to do this on any program a normal person could buy or use, only big studio hard-core Hollywood programmers had access to them. Now, Apple has made this product available to small business people like us, and our clients’ mouths are dropping when they see what we can do."

People are dazzled by the cherished keepsakes born from this marriage of artistry and technology. One client called his daughters wedding DVD the most wonderful thing they had ever seen. "He saw it as a time capsule," Bill explains, "of all the people who are so important to them, with their expressions and voices and gestures, for years and generations to come. It was a most gratifying appreciation"

Creating A Wedding DVD
While weddings take place in a single day, Bill and Marleen spend months creating their DVD of the event. After the event, couples send in supplemental materials like printed invitations, favorite songs and family photos and videos. "When it's all collected, we spend about two days just reviewing all the footage and logging everything," says Marleen.

"Then we begin to develop the story we're going to tell, using a spreadsheet with edit decisions, time codes, scene descriptions," adds Bill. "We use Final Cut Pro to capture everything in the computer, label and organize it, build the story, and edit to a final length. During this editing process I insert chapter marks for all the menus I'm going to build in DVD Studio Pro."

"When I'm happy with it, I click to make a standalone QuickTime Reference movie, then I convert the file to the MPEG2 format needed for the DVD, the Audio then gets converted to Dolby format. Next, I import all this media, and the menus created in Photoshop into DVD Studio Pro. I then diagram the proposed DVD navigation layout and assemble the menus. Next the video and audio tracks, and lastly everything is linked and checked and double checked."

Bill does all the authoring, creating buttons, assembling images and video segments, and so on in DVD Studio Pro, and he says "this part of the work is fun and goes very fast. Our clients love and appreciate their unique custom made DVDs."

Small Business Success How Video Art Works creates DVD "Time Capsules"
Nine Powerful Mac Computers The quaint Video Art Works studio packs a load of computer hardware. Bill and Marleen use four dual-processor Power Mac G4s, each fully loaded with 2-GB of RAM, and four 250-GB hard drives and 2 built-in DVD burners. There’s a PowerBook and 2 G5 iMacs and 2 iMac intel models. All machines are running OS-X. There are 20 external FireWire 120-GB hard drives for projects and back up and card readers on each machine, 20 2-GB CF cards come in handy for camera data. They also have Epson 2450 and 1200 scanners, Epson CD/DVD deskjet printers, and, for photos, a Canon S800 deskjet. Equally well-stocked on the software side, they use Final Cut Pro and Express for editing, composition and complicated multi-layer imaging. DVD Studio Pro is the tool of choice for authoring menus and assembling the finished DVD. They use Adobe Photoshop for titling and photo montages, and from third-party company, many very cool Plug-ins for video editing special effects like snow and rain. Photo by GillesRousseauStudio.com To keep their fingers flying, Bill turns to the Wacom drawing tablets on each machine, while Marleen has modified her Mac keyboards with Final Cut Pro key caps. They have a host of video equipment, including Sony DSR 300AL and DSR 250 and 150 high-end three-chip DV camcorders, four Sony DSR-30 decks wired into the Macs with FireWire for camera-to-computer input and output, and various lights, tripods and wireless microphones. Artistic DVDs As the availability of advanced tools like DVD Studio Pro pushes the boundaries of what people like Bill and Marleen can do, event videography is earning new stature. It has taken a while, reflects Bill, but people are beginning to view our award winning Video Production skills and DVD work with the respect they show professional photographers and musicians, who are considered artists. Bill is a vocal advocate for DVD at shows and conferences. "The most important thing people in our industry can do," he says, "is learn to author and produce DVDs and keep up with the trends of the electronics industry, so they can deliver what consumers and corporate clients want." In his view, the superiority of the medium is self-evident. "With DVD, you're not limited to the length of a CD or the small hard drive in a laptop. You can throw a 4.7-GB disc in your machine and play two hours of gorgeous video with audio, charts, graphs, photos, and menus that jump anywhere, on the disk or onto the web. An authored DVD in the right hands can replace power point. It's a blast." Photo by DavidPhotos.com		As the self-confessed nerd of the pair, Bill is always ready to try new features. "DVD Studio Pro is so powerful, there are whole areas I haven't even explored yet," he admits. But he likes its simplicity as much as its power. "DVD Studio Pro is a marvelous program to use because it's so easy. When I first opened the box, I learned it in 45 minutes. The display makes sense, and it's elegant and fast. But when I realized its possibilities, to make chapters and jump between cool menus and video segments, I was dumbfounded." He especially appreciates the menu system. "The way you can import just a single Photoshop document with all of the layers (up to 99) you need for your menus systems in DVD Studio Pro is just phenomenal." Rivaling Hollywood Marleen sums it up this way: "DVD Studio Pro gives us the ability to create a most incredible wedding DVD that rivals anything Hollywood can do." "One year ago," adds Bill, "you could not get the features to do this on any program a normal person could buy or use, only big studio hard-core Hollywood programmers had access to them. Now, Apple has made this product available to small business people like us, and our clients’ mouths are dropping when they see what we can do." People are dazzled by the cherished keepsakes born from this marriage of artistry and technology. One client called his daughters wedding DVD the most wonderful thing they had ever seen. "He saw it as a time capsule," Bill explains, "of all the people who are so important to them, with their expressions and voices and gestures, for years and generations to come. It was a most gratifying appreciation" Creating A Wedding DVD While weddings take place in a single day, Bill and Marleen spend months creating their DVD of the event. After the event, couples send in supplemental materials like printed invitations, favorite songs and family photos and videos. "When it's all collected, we spend about two days just reviewing all the footage and logging everything," says Marleen. "Then we begin to develop the story we're going to tell, using a spreadsheet with edit decisions, time codes, scene descriptions," adds Bill. "We use Final Cut Pro to capture everything in the computer, label and organize it, build the story, and edit to a final length. During this editing process I insert chapter marks for all the menus I'm going to build in DVD Studio Pro." "When I'm happy with it, I click to make a standalone QuickTime Reference movie, then I convert the file to the MPEG2 format needed for the DVD, the Audio then gets converted to Dolby format. Next, I import all this media, and the menus created in Photoshop into DVD Studio Pro. I then diagram the proposed DVD navigation layout and assemble the menus. Next the video and audio tracks, and lastly everything is linked and checked and double checked." Bill does all the authoring, creating buttons, assembling images and video segments, and so on in DVD Studio Pro, and he says "this part of the work is fun and goes very fast. Our clients love and appreciate their unique custom made DVDs."